Michael Sporn Animation – Splog

As I was taking this picture, someone on the street behind me said, “Baby Jesus is born with a full head of hair.” This is the manger scene at St Anthony of Padua church in Greenwich Village. I posted the rest of this scene last week and said the crib wouldn’t get the very old looking baby until Christmas. Actually, it arrived last night when I took these pictures.

- You can see an interesting asssortment of Christmas cards sent to Dick Huemer and family over the years by going here.

-You can see another set sent to Ken Harris by going here.

Speaking of Ken Harris, the Richard Williams Christmas Carol can be seen in its entirety here on Google video.

- My favorite Christmas cartoon of the pre-TV era has got to be Mickey’s Good Deed. This film gets me laughing every time. Every bit of it is funny, from the constantly turning story to the witty animation. How hilarious when Mickey has to sell Pluto for a Christmas present !

That’s not on YouTube, but it is on the dvd compilation, Walt Disney Treasures – Mickey Mouse in Black and White, Volume Two. This is a good set of shorts (I like the early Mickey’s more than the later ones in color.)

- There are a couple of good Christmas shorts available on YouTube now. I’m only pointing to some early cartoons, because I like them. They seem less devisive and more innocent. (Hurry, before copyright holders wake up and pull them from the site.)

The Night Before Christmas from Disney 1933:

Tom & Jerry in The Night Before Christmas

The Little King in Christmas Night

Disney’s 1932 Santa’s Workshop

- Finally, there’s the card Tom Sito pointed me toward. Here. It shows a VO recording starring Santa, and it’s pretty funny.

– 18 months ago, an artist had set himself up in front of Our Lady of Pompeii church, about a block away from my studio. He painted a rosetta image of Madonna and Child using some kind of chalks, I wondered how long the image would stay. Three days, maybe five?

When it didn’t fade away quickly, I assumed it must have been done with oil pastels. I still don’t really know but am curious. The church, at Bleecker and 6th Ave in Greenwich Villiage, is a landmark in the city, and a lot of people walk by and around it.

Now it’s a year and a half later, and the Madonna is fading slowly despite hundreds of people walking over it.

The aging actually seems to have improved it; I’m impressed with its endurance.

I also wondered who the artist was. He obviously copied what looked to me like a Caravaggio. It took him about three days of work to complete. Though I walked past him several times (the church is on the way to the subway from my studio) I never stopped to ask who he was.

This past week, for the first time, I noticed another street painting by the same man at 8th Street in Greenwich Village.

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(Click any image to enlarge.)

1. This is a more ambitious painting, and includes quite a bit of detail. There’s Mary and Child, two angels and two saints.

2. I had difficulty photographing it; I tried early morning – when crowds would be fewer – but had an overbearing sun blocking out Mary’s face. It seemed to glow. Hence, I had to go in for this close-up of Mary and Child.

With this picture, the artist left his name and phone number. I found his site on the internet. Hani Shihada takes pride in what he does, and he should. He also decorates stores, restaurants et. al.

I’m just happy with the way he’s decorated my City.

Additional Note:
The NYTimes, today, has an article on Nickelodeon and it’s money machine – cartoons.

- This past weekend was a crazy one. I’m an Academy voter, and I try to see most of the films so that I can feel confident in my vote – which probably doesn’t count for much, but I feel responsible. Consequently, there’re a lot of films to watch in Nov, Dec and Jan.

Well, something strange is happening this year. I’ve been getting invitations to screening with stars and directors present. I don’t know how I’ve gotten on the “A” list, but I’m enjoying it.

Last week, watching Babel with the director, Alejandro González Iñárritu, was much more fun than watching the DVD. It’s also the way that exciting and tense film should be seen.

This weekend, Miss Potter had a screening at the Museum of Modern Art followed by a dinner at the Plaza Atheneum (read expensive). Renee Zellweger, Emily Watson and Ewan McGregor were there to greet every table. There were lots of other interesting guests watching and eating alongside us. Karen Ziemba‘s a Broadway star who sat alongside us, and we had a great conversation about her upcoming show – the final Kander & Ebb musical, Curtains. It had played at the Ahmanson in LA and is now moving to Broadway’s Al Hirschfeld Theater later in the Spring.

On Sunday, there was a screening of Clint Eastwood‘s Letters from Iwo Jima. And yes, he was there as was Ken Watanabe and a number of others from the all Japanese cast. The acting was brilliant throughout the film, which was far and away one of the best of the year. I wasn’t the greatest fan of Flags For Our Fathers, but this one is brilliant.
The film was followed by a reception in their honor.
What a treat to shake the hand of a real master.
(Click image to enlarge.)
(Above: Eastwood with Watanabe moving away, just right of him. I would normally be too shy to take a photo, but there were many Japanese photographers shooting at this short photo moment, that I knew it wouldn’t be obtrusive of me to snap it.

Of course, most of the films aren’t screened this way, and I’ve been seeing five films a week for the past three weeks. My eyes water incessantly, but I’m loving it. The films I’ve seen this way have all been good ones. I wonder if the star factor would make up for clunkers. Somehow I doubt it.

- At Bill Plympton’s Christmas Party this past Thursday night, I ran into Xeth Feinberg. He told me that he was going to eventually find someone whose work would prove to me that Flash isn’t such a horrible program.

(Left the email invite for
Plympton’s Christmas Party.)

I obviously give the wrong idea with my writings. I don’t hate Flash, but I do dislike the lack of professionalism it engenders in the hands of less experienced people. These are the people who claim to be animators once they make an image move, and using the relatively simple program enables them to move images without much complication.

Great animation, of course, reveals character. As yet, I don’t think I’ve seen any real characters or character development done in Flash. I’m sure this isn’t the fault of the program, but the fault of those using it. It isn’t a pencil that makes bad drawings; it’s the person using the pencil. I’m also sure I haven’t seen enough to make any sweeping generalizations. I do see limitations in the medium, and I suspect expert Flash animators do, as well.

As a matter of fact, I quite like a number of Xeth’s pieces. He’s done a large number of films and has remained totally independent of the normal system.
His Bulbo character and the films he did with Bulbo provided me with early proof that interesting animation could be done in Flash.
His Queer Duck provided proof that Flash could conquer large subjects in large territories. I still haven’t seen his Queer Duck feature, but I have seen at least five extended pieces starring this character. They’re funny, and entertaining. I’m interested to see how it stretches over the course of 90 minutes. Features are another matter. To me Art Direction really comes into a place of importance in a bigger film, and the animation has to get better than it does in shorts. Looking for character development. (Click images to enlarge.)
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Watching some early parts of Debra Solomon’s upcoming work showed me another side of Flash that absolutely piqued my interest. I look forward to seeing how her movie-in-progress develops.

Bruno Bozzetto has been doing a number of very short films in Flash, and he told me that he loves working with it. The shorts are funny and provocative pieces, and it’s interesting to see someone of his caliber working with it.

Nina Paley’s Sitayana series absolutely delights me. She’s done a number of beautifully drawn shorts in Flash that are full of creative touches with beautiful design. Again, they’re ultimately going to be joined together as a feature. I love the shorts and look forward to seeing how they connect as a whole.

I’m curious to see where one of these artists, or someone whose work I don’t know, will take this medium in the future. However, to me it just seems a way of handicapping yourself for the sake of the simplicity it offers.

I also wonder if any of these artists will go past the realm of the drawn images. I see enormous character development in Paul Fierlinger’s films and suspect that the Mirage technology, which Paul uses, isn’t too far from Flash. I’ve diddled with both and find similarities. (ToonBoom studio is even easier – to me – than Flash.) Hence, that tells me that someone will take the tool into another dimension. I look forward to it.

- It’s Walt Disney‘s Birthday; too bad he isn’t around to celebrate it. But it’s also the first anniversary of this blog, so I can celebrate that. Cheers!

Disney in the Times and Time Magazine.
. This past weekend there were a number of interesting developments, reported in the NYTimes, regarding the Disney animation department. On Friday (as reported Saturday in the Business Section), the studio will let go of 160 employees – 25% of the animation staff.
. Then on Sunday, we learned that they’re about to produce a number of short films for distribution to open before some of their features. Apparently, they’ll make the new shorts with fewer people.
. Reports that John Lasseter decided to overide Musker & Clements choice of Alan Menken to write the songs and score The Frog Princess seems to be creating a bit of a stir. You can read about it on Jim Hill Media.

For some reason all this confusion (maybe it’s just I who is confused) reminds me of the period after Walt Disney died in 1966. It seemed that the studio had some difficulty operating without him. Decision making was difficult since everyone wanted to continue the legacy.
The primary question seems to have been, “How would Walt have done it?”

Roy Disney was able to push the studio along for a short bit, but things started going wrong under Ron Miller‘s (Walt’s son-in-law) leadership. Ron knew nothing about animation or films – he was known for being a football player. His decisions took the studio down the wrong road. Profits rolled in but were not quite what they should have been. There was also a lot of dissension.

(Click on the images to enlarge to a readable size.)

An unsuccessful hostile take-over attempt gave the studio a jolt and brought in some big-time operators – Eisner, Wells and Katzenberg who really brought the studio up to date and got the profits to start multiplying.

They also jump-started the near-dead animation department back into life. The Little Mermaid, Beauty and The Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King were certainly their doing.

Now, the studio is in a new era – the Iger years. I thought it might be interesting to look back a bit to the somber days of animation at the Disney studio – The Black Cauldron, anyone?

The above article appeared in Time Magazine in 1976 about the company’s business affairs, and I thought it a good read given the history that came after this.

Disney at The New Yorker
- How appropriate this week for The New Yorker magazine to have an extensive review of Neal Gabler‘s biography of Disney by their film critic, Anthony Lane. This article is available on-line and is worth the read. Go here to read it.
The on-line site also features a 1971 article by Calvin Trillin about Disney World.
Go here for this article, entitled “Are Ya Havin’ Fun?”.

The Golden Pencil
- As mentioned last week, we won the award for Best 2DAnimation at Tony White’s 2D or Not 2D Festival held in Washington State. It was a treat for me to hear from Tony that we’d won a “Golden Pencil Award.

Today the “Golden Pencil” arrived. It’s hilarious. A large stub of a pencil. I enlisted animiator Matt Clinton to pose for some snaps with the award.

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1. Matt animating with the “Golden Pencil.”
2. A CU of it in his hand.

A close-up of the “Award” among some other awards.
It’s not as close to the camera as it looks here.

- This past was a filled weekend.

On Saturday there was a screening of the film Babel which Heidi and I attended. The director, Alejandro González Iñárritu, was present to meet and greet at a post-screening gathering. The film was exciting and certainly one of the better films of the past year, but he was a charming man to meet. Because of this screening, I wasn’t able toi attend a screening of Michel Ocelot‘s French animated feature, Azur et Asmar. I’d have another chance Sunday. (Click any image to enlarge.)
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In the evening, Debra Solomon hosted a birthday party for herself. It was a fabulous event with a lot of people to say hi to. Ray Kosarin, Lisa Crafts, George Griffin, Candy Kugel, Jody Gray, and John Schnall were among those there. It was really a good evening. At the party, George and Candy both encouraged me to go to the Azur et Asmar screening. So Sunday morning that’s where I headed.

– Oh no! It was sold out. There was a standby line for people who had their fingers crossed. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get into the IFC center to see the film. Their on-line site didn’t allow you to buy advance tickets, so we were out in the cold.

On line (I mean a real line on which you wait), I met up with Ray Kosarin, Lisa Crafts and Ken Brown. We went for coffee and had a nice time, regardless. We’ll all have to see the film another time.

- Today’s the actual birthday of Debra Solomon. She had sent me a drawing a couple of weeks ago, which I’ll post here. Titled “Relaxing at Home,” it’s not the way to celebrate a birthday, but it’s a funny drawing.

– Wednesday, I went to the Museum of Modern Art to see a screening of a new print of Mr. Bug Goes To Town. I didn’t quite expect a private screening; there were only four of us in the audience which seats a couple hundred.

Over the holidays, from December 19 through January 2, MOMA is screening 10 family films. These include: Elf , Shrek, Babe, Meet Me in St. Louis, and The Adventures of Robin Hood, among others.

I first saw Mr. Bug when I was about 12.
It was shown at a local theater, and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t known about it. I had borrowed – in fact memorized – so many library books on animation, yet none of them had talked about it. (That was back in, roughly, 1958.)
The film was, to me, new and a gem.

This MOMA screening is the second time I was able to see the feature on a big screen, though I’ve seen it dozens of times on tv. (I own the dvd and a print and can watch it in 16mm, but that’s not quite the same thing.)

The film was a total flop when it was released in 1941. Pearl Harbor took place three days before its premiere, and the oncoming World War limited the distribution of most films. The European market was completely lost, and that represented 1/2 of the potential income.
Paramount, under the leadership of Barney Balaban, took the opportunity to break up the Fleischer studio (they had obviously planned to do so in advance of the film’s limited release) and renamed it Famous Studios under the direction of Max Fleischer‘s son-in-law, Seymour Kneitel.

I’ve always loved aspects of the Fleischer studio animation. It’s so rooted in New York (despite the fact that the later stuff was done in Florida) that it absolutely screams out with an original charm of its own that completely separates it from Hollywood’s films.

The Fleischers obviously learned a thing or two from Disney, they stole a number of his animators (such as Grim Natwick, Al Eugster and Shamus Culhane) for Gulliver’s Travels and they brought Leigh Harline (who’d won the Oscar for Pinocchio) in to compose the film’s score and Pinto Colvig (the voice of “Goofy” did voices for both Fleischer features.)

Seeing the film again on a big screen accentuated the background styling of Robert Little. Given the closeup nature of the film, following small bugs about, the Backgrounds consistently fake a low depth of field look, as if it were a live action film. The backgrounds, with very few exceptions, are painted with at least 1/3 – usually more like 2/3 – painted out of focus. At first, I thought they were using some type of multiplane device to put areas of the bg’s out of focus. No, on the big screen you could see the texture of the paper or random specks of paint – clearly in focus. The effect is to highlight the characters and give a focal point for the audience. Brilliantly done.

Also there’s one beautiful point where they fade out the scene – to about 90% black – while keeping a small iris around the little bug at the piano. This before they fade out the entire scene. It’s an effect Martin Scorsese uses in The Departed, but Mr. Bug was done 70 years ago. They’re beautifully exploiting a silent film technique for dramatic purposes. It’s an important film, and those who can make it in January should go.

I posted some material from Mr. Bug Goes To Town back in February (a children’s book and sheet music).
Go here to relive that posting.

But back to MOMA. The film’s a beauty, and the print is good (some scratches but a beautiful IB Technicolor print.) The screening for the public will be on Jan 1 at 11:00 & 2:00. It’s a great way to start the New Year.

Mr. Bug Goes to Town (1942) Directed by Dave Fleischer. Screenplay by Dan Gordon, Tedd Pierce, Isidore Sparber, William Turner, Carl Meyer, Graham Place, Bob Wickersham and Cal Howard.

(Click on any image to enlarge.)

MOMA‘s complete holiday family film schedule is as follows:

Elf Tuesday, Dec 19 Noon & 3:00
Big Saturday, December 23 and Sunday, Dec 24 Noon
The Adventures of Robin Hood Tuesday, Dec 26 11:00 & 1:30
Shrek Wednesday, Dec 27 11:00 & 1:30
Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit Thursday, Dec 28 11:00 & 1:30
Babe Friday, Dec 29 Noon & 2:00
Madagascar Saturday, Dec 30 11:00 & 1:30
Ghostbusters Sunday, Dec 31 11:00 & 1:30
Mr. Bug Goes to Town Monday, Jan 1 11:00 & 2:00
Meet Me in St. Louis Tuesday, Jan 2 11:00 & 2:00

- Last night, Tom Sito appeared at a local Barnes & Noble store where he gave a talk and signed books for those that came. The talk was as enjoyable as was expected – Tom always entertains with his humorous mix of stories and history, always given in a personal way.

I took some photos and thought I’d post them, for those who couldn’t make it.

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(Click any image to enlarge.)
1. Outside Barnes & Noble. Tom was just inside the display window. You could watch the talk from the street.
2. There was a nice group of people who showed. It was fun seeing Howard Beckerman again. It’s been a while.

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3. Tom looked good, last night. Being an author obviously agrees with him.
4. Dave Levy asked a question from the audience.

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5. Dave might have been surprised at the answer, or he might have been joking with Chris Boyce before the talk began.
6. With me were Heidi Stalllings pulling a face for the camera and Matt Clinton.

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7. Post talk, there was the signing. Tom takes time with everyone.
8. He returns home to L.A. today. It was nice seeing him again. There are times in NY when you feel separated from the larger animation group, and it’s nice to have some small contact.

- Tonight Tom Sito will be in New York at the Chelsea Barnes and Noble (675 Sixth Ave, near 22nd Street) to talk about and sign copies of his book, Drawing the Line at 7:00PM. The author, animator, writer, director, producer and great friend will be giving a presentation about the history of animation unions. He’ll offer some real insight into the back door workings of some of the biggest (and smallest) cartoon studios.

His book, (official title) Drawing The Line: The Untold Story Of The Animation Unions From Bosko To Bart Simpson, is a unique book with a compelling story for its subject. I read through it in what felt like hours, I was so engrossed, and would suggest anyone interested in animation and its history take a look at it.

At the very least, you should try to make it tonight to meet Tom and hear what he has to say about the subject.

7:00 PM Chelsea Barnes and Noble 675 Sixth Ave, near 22nd Street.

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- Suzan Pitt has been making animated films for almost thirty years. In my opinion, her work has always been the closest thing animation comes to “Art.” Not all of the films are easily accessible for the masses, but all of them border on the genius side of film.

Asparagus was the biggest thing in the Indepedent animation world back in the early ’80s. (The film was completed in 1979.) Hardly a screening of animated films existed without including this short. Hence, I’ve seen the film at least 30 times, and it wears well – though there were times when I became impatient during it. Her films don’t have the haste that today’s animation always seems to strive to achieve. This, to me, is a positive on Pitt’s side. The short played on the circuit, for over two years, opening for David Lynch’s Eraserhead.

El Doctor, her most recent film, recently played on PBS this past October. It’s a complex short that takes its time in telling a nightmarish story which plays out in Mexico. A medley of styles – all inspired by Mexican art – is beautifully and richly animated. Ms. Pitt used a number of talented assistants to reveal this half-hour story. There’s a good article by Chris Robinson on AWN about the making of the film.

All of her films have been put together in one dvd released by First Run Features. EL DOCTOR, JOY STREET, AND ASPARAGUS: The Wonderfully Strange & Surreal Animation of Suzan Pitt .

It’s a well produced package that includes the three films plus a new documentary, “Suzan Pitt: Perisitance of Vision”, which explores Pitt’s inspirations, animation techniques, and more.

There’s an excellent review of this dvd by Mark Mayerson on FPS.

Not included on this disk is the series that she did with R.O. Blechman‘s Ink Tank. Troubles The Cat was done for Cartoon Network’s Big Bag and is one of the most delightful series done recently for television. Designed by Santiago Cohen and narrated beautifully by Maria Conchita Alonso. Go here to see a clip. I’d love to see these shorts collected on one dvd.

She has had major exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of Art, the Holly Solomon Gallery in New York, and the Stedlijk Museum in Amsterdam. She has designed two operas in Germany which were the first to include animated images for the stage (Damnation of Faust, and The Magic Flute). In addition, Pitt has created two large multi-media shows at the Venice Biennale and Harvard University. Pitt is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Fulbright Scholar Award, three National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, and a Rockefeller Fellowship. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Walker Art Center, The Museum of Modern Art, and the Filmmuseum in Amsterdam.
(Click on any image to enlarge.)

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– In case you haven’t seen it yet, Ward Jenkins has posted an absolutely delightful two-part series on
John Canemaker‘s adventures in winning an Oscar.

It’s a day-to-day accounting of what John went through on the way to the microphone. Lots of pictures and a really fun read. Part 1 here. Part 2 here.